Mark's Pages

January 16, 2004:

How much of her lack of adventurousness is the result of nicotine intoxication?

Many drugs stimulate the things-are-ok centers of the brain. They engender a false sense of well-being which is in part the origin of their seductiveness, so that the enthusiast who adopts them comes in time to feel less and less impetus to do anything too much aside from feed their high.

Picture an elderly, heavyset woman seated in an armchair facing a glowing television screen. Around her swirls a cloud of cigarette smoke, subtle yet lithe and potent, like a serpent circling an unsuspecting rabbit. A rain of fine ash settles over the room, coating furniture, books, cooking utensils, carpets, cats, everything, with gray-white dust. On her face is the absent gloss of life-long junkies, blissfully unaware. Reflected television imagery dances behind heavy eyelids. All is well with the world.